USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 16
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FOURTH STREET [now Pleasant Street] begins at the shore, the southeastern Line of which is ten rods from the northwestern Line of Fort Hill Street, and extends north twenty-five and a half Degress East to said Street leading from the Meeting House to the River, crossing the same and then extending the same course sixteen rods further.
3. The site of the present post-office.
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This street is also laid out forty feet wide. [It was originally a corduroy road and huge timbers still found beneath the surface extend as far north as the house of Josephine Dodge. It is believed that it was constructed from the timbers employed for the frame- work of Wiscasset's first fort on Garrison Hill. It would have been a simple matter to utilize these great logs of virgin timber by pitching them down that steep hill when the fort was demolished about 1740.]
FIFTH or COURT STREET,4 [which has borne the name of Woodman for Jacob Wood- man who owned and occupied the house now belonging to Carroll T. Berry; now Summer Street ] begins at the shore the southeasterly line of which is ten rods from the northwestern Line of Fourth Street, and so runs north twenty-five and a half Degrees East to said street leading from the Meeting House to the river, said Street is forty feet wide. The three last mentioned streets are laid out extending south twenty-five and a half degrees West to a small Gut or channel made by a Brook running out of Dr. Rice's Boom.
STATE STREET 5 or the street leading from the meeting house to the river, the south- western side Line of which begins at a stake in the Northwestern Line of Water Street aforesaid forty eight rods from the stake first mentioned, thence runs west twenty-five and a half Degrees North to a stake standing in the northwesterly Line of Fort Hill Street thence to run north forty-eight Degrees West to the northwestern corner of Fifth Street aforesaid, then to run north fifty-two Degrees West eight rods and four- side of said Line, from said Water Street near the Southeasterly corner of Capt. Ebene- zer Whittier's dwelling house, and from said stake the northeasterly Line of said Street to run North forty two Degrees West until it strikes the Square or Common laid out for a Training Field.
The Landing at the foot of this Street is described and bounded thus: To begin at the stake in Water Street where the southwestern Line of this begins, thence running an op- posite course to said Line, across Water Street where the Southwestern Line of this be- gins, thence running an opposite course to said Line, across Water Street and by land of John Page to low water mark, then to begin where the northeastern Line of State Street intersects the southeastern Line of Water Street, from thence to run a line parallel with the other side line of said Landing until it strikes Major Huse' Wharff, thence by the head of said Wharff untill it comes to the southwestern side thereof, thence by the southwestern side thereof as it now is built to low water mark, including all the Land and Flatts lying between those lines & below Water Street.
The addition of Land to the Square or Common aforesaid, formerly laid out, is de- scribed & bounded as follows: Begininng at a stake in the northeastern Line of the
4. Court Street ran to the wooden court house then located at the foot of the Common.
5. State Street, originally called Meeting-House Road, which leads from the meeting-house straight to the river, was first projected to go over the Great Rock of Garrison Hill where the Methodist Church now stands, but the difficulties encountered by the use of hand drills and blowing the rock with powder made it advisable to swing the road further to the north at its present location.
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Road leading to the Point, which lies between Lots No. three and four, and ten rods southeast from the southeast corner of lot No. Three, thence to run southwest six rods and twenty links, thence to run south five Degrees west untill it strikes the northeastern Line of State Street, thence southwesterly about six rods to the northwestern corner of Fifth Street aforesaid, then to run north fifty-two Degrees West eight rods and four- teen Links, thence upon a straight Line to the stake in the northeastern Line of the five rod road first begun at.
This is in addition to the ten-rod road before the meeting-house, former- ly laid out for the use of this town.
FORE STREET aforesaid we also lay out forty feet wide from Water Street aforesaid East twenty five & an half Degrees South to low water mark. Also we lay out for a Landing for the use of said Town all the Land and Flatts that lie between Mr. Timothy Parson's Store & Wharff, and Mr. John Sevey's Wharff, as they now are built & below Water Street aforesaid to low water mark.
Report of the Selectmen May I, THOS RICE
1791. describ. Streets -landing
in Wiscasset.
GEORGE ERSKIN - Selectmen of Pownalborough
Sevey Lane or Big Foot Alley
In pursuance of the directions given to us by a vote of the Town we, the Selectmen thereof have proceeded to lay out a road or street from Middle Street so-called and have accordingly laid out for the use of said town a road on the southwesterly side of land belonging to Mr. Wyman Bradbury Sevey sixteen feet in width running at right angles with said Middle Street and by the northeasterly side of the houses owned by Captain Alexander Cunningham and Capt. Josiah Goddard, and we do estimate and adjudge to the following persons the following sums in full for damages by them sus- tained by the laying out said street or road, viz:
To the owner of the house occupied by Mrs. Elmes the sum of $45.
To the owner of the building standing next to Mr. Cunningham's house or in Water Street $30.
To Mr. Wyman B. Sevey the sum of $200 in full for the land.
In testimony whereof we said selectmen have hereto set our hands this seventh day of May Anno Domini 1802.
SILAS LEE NYMPHAS STACY DAVID PAYSON
One other alley in town is Shinbone Alley. It connects Middle with Water Street and passes between the houses now owned and occupied by William Southard and James Bimson.
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Before Stacy's Gore was taken off the Stacy property for the cemetery and before the perambulation of Lincoln Street was made, Washington Street is thought to have extended past Noyes Corner to Middle Street, and its extension, Shinbone Alley, led to Joppa Head, as the highland was called before the hill was dug away to make a gradual slope for shipyards and railroad.
At the present time Wiscasset has 22,400 rods, or more than seventy miles, of roadway to be kept in order.
A soldier's monument, a tablet of bronze on a boulder, was placed on the Common and dedicated on Memorial Day, 1920, by the Wiscasset Village Improvement Society. The inscription is as follows:
This tablet is dedicated to the
SONS of WISCASSET who served in the WORLD WAR 1917-1919
ERECTED BY THE W. V. I. S.
The sun-dial which formerly stood on the Common was taken away in 1870. The millstone which formed its foundation was hauled to the Lin- coln County jail and used for a well curb. Through the courtesy of the Commissioners of Lincoln County it was given to the town when the sun- dial was restored by the Village Improvement Society to a place as near as possible to its former location.
The face of the dial, the circumferentor, was made by Moses B. Bliss of Gardiner.
A mast or flagpole 86 feet in height on which to hoist flags or signals was erected November 4, 1878, on Garrison Hill just opposite the Metho- dist Church.
The band stand was built on the Common June 8, 1885, and there the Wiscasset Cornet Band used to give weekly concerts to the public all through the summer months, when the evenings were fine. Men, women, and chil- dren from the outlying farms and neighboring villages would gather in front of the meeting-house on band nights to enjoy the music.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
Richard's Rock, a famous loitering place in bygone days for the farmers, was at the lower end of State Street, near the Town Landing and Stacy's Corner (where is now the telephone office). It was broken and crumbled by the intense heat of the disastrous fire in December, 1870. Near this rock were the old horse stands, beside a ledge which was blasted out in order to approach the long wooden bridge built in 1847.
The old hay-market was another rendezvous. It was that part of State Street, now Main, between the house of Joshua Hilton and the Belle Haven where the townway is eight rods in width. Here the farmers would assemble in front of the Hilton House with their harvest of timothy, red- top (English grass), and clover and line up their racks of loose hay for sale. One of these picturesque vendors was curly-haired Moses Huntoon, who, with crescent-shaped gold ear-rings in his ears, a bright red bandanna tied jauntily around his neck, a five-foot ox-goad in hand, presented a highly exotic appearance more in keeping with a Sicilian port than a little New England town.
In the winter wood was sold at the same place in like manner. It was no uncommon sight to see twenty or more loads of wood, cord or fitted, on sleds or pungs drawn by oxen, placed here side by side for sale. Among the best remembered of these old wood-mongers are Abraham Nute and John Baker, 2nd, who came to town with their steers and lined up their wood for sale at the hay-market.
The Common or "trayneing green," originally rectangular in shape was laid out in Revolutionary times for a training field for the soldiers. The slant or short cut which started as a foot-path across the green developed into a cart-way, then a townway and finally into the state road.
The gun house stood at the southwest corner of the lot of land at Sum- mer and Warren Streets, opposite the Academy. But in 1845, when Warren Street was widened as far as Hodge Street, the State authorized the select- men to remove the gun house. It was a barn-like structure "where uniforms and frog stickers were stored in the second story." Capt. Richard H. Tucker bought this house and had it hauled to his lot on the erstwhile Windmill Hill, where it is still standing, although somewhat altered in appearance.
The annual muster of the Lincoln County Regiment was usually held at Wiscasset and several of the companies were marched into the village dur- ing the night. The gun house was the rendezvous for the farmers, many of
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whom arrived at daybreak, sometimes as early as three o'clock in the morn- ing, bringing with them tubs of honey, and suckling pigs which were roasted and served-not with the traditional apple, but with a Wiscasset rose in each little pink snout.
The line always formed in front of the meeting-house and extended in double file the entire length of the ridge, from a place on Bank Hill just opposite the present public library, to Washington Street at Hodge's Cor- ner. It was here that the visiting companies came and lined up preparatory to a march into the field at ten A.M. After the field exercises, the regiment in platoons usually marched back to the place of morning parade, where, in platoons or in line, their arms were discharged, after which the regiment was broken up into companies and they returned to their homes.
General muster was a red-letter day in Wiscasset.
The Gun on the Common
In the year 1864, when the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee was known to be near the mouth of the Sheepscot committing depredations from Matini- cus to Portland, great uneasiness prevailed lest this, or some other enemy vessel, should sail up the river.
The yacht-built fisherman Archer of Southport, Captain Decker of In- diantown, had been seized and the Restless, Capt. Levi Blake of Boothbay, had been scuttled. After capturing the John Brooks and the vessels in Port- land harbor, the Tallahassee proceeded to Halifax from which place Col. Erastus Foote, then collector of the port of Wiscasset, received warning that the cruiser was planning to invade this harbor and sack the town. Upon being apprised of this contemplated raid on Wiscasset, a citizens' meeting was immediately called at which Hon. Wilmot Wood presided. A volunteer enrollment was started and a company of men formed under Colonel Foote for the defense of the town.
The town had brass guns, rifled nine-pounders-the property of the state -a new four-pounder rifled cannon, the property of the late Capt. Alex- ander Johnston, and an iron smooth-bore Dahlgren which had been pur- chased at the outbreak of the war at the cost of $400 for the protection of the village. This battery was mounted at the parapet of the old fort which bristled with the rifled brazen guns. A daily guard was set and relief for
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night watch for about a month, until it was known that the Tallahassee had been chased out of these waters.
It was the duty of the town to provide rations for the men. Every night it was the custom to have the battery shotted.
An hour's sail from the mouth of the Sheepscot would have brought the Tallahassee to the harbor, so orders were given to let no water craft pass through the Narrows unchallenged. The "All's well" of the night service was generally announced by the boom of the morning gun, and not infre- quently by the hiss of a round of shot in ricochet across the bay in the face of Cushman's mountain.
One night in the gloom and mist of an almost impenetrable fog, the night watch heard the sound of oars in the distance-muffled oars they seemed to be. The entire guard was at once aroused. Nearer and nearer came the blurred shape of a Boothbay pinkey in the fog. The sentry chal- lenged. The drop of the long sweep oar ceased, but there was no other re- sponse. The challenge was repeated, answered by naught but silence. Then came the order to fire. The flash of a cannon lighted the scene and a solid shot under the bow of the "invading fleet" revealed a pinkey which dashed the water aboard and startled the solitary fisherman at the helm with an oar in hand. He then found his voice, and declared his mission. It was only Captain Pinkham coming in with a boatload of hake for the early morning market in Wiscasset. So the last gun fired at the fort, though it heralded a fright and ended in a farce, was nevertheless fired in defense of Wiscasset during the Civil War.
It is this old Dahlgren gun which guarded the Common, and from which salutes were fired at sunrise and sunset on the Fourth of July by old Capt. Ed Logan in the nineties. This gun is now stored in the Wiscasset Public Library.
Ferries
The Westport ferry, a scow which runs on a cable, still operates between Bailey's Point, Wiscasset, and Westport Island over the old crossing which was once an ancient Indian route. The road which connects the ferry with Route I is called Jeremy Squam Road.
There was no public ferry at Wiscasset Point until 1785, when Moses Davis was licensed to keep one from Edgecomb to Wiscasset, and David
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Silvester from Wiscasset to Edgecomb. John M. Brockings was afterward associated with Davis, and they continued to keep it until the old horse ferry was established by the Sheepscot Ferry Company, which was incorporated March 9, 1832. The ferry landing on the eastern or Edgecomb shore was in a cove on Folly Island, just southwest of the present blockhouse. When the land was sold to the government for the fort, the ferry-ways moved to a place farther west, the location of which can be traced at low tide at a spot close by the landing of Horace Henderson, Esq. The ferry-ways in Wiscas- set were located at the extreme southeastern point of the village, near the Whaleship Wharf.
Before the advent of the horse ferry, the boat which ran to Folly Island (Davis Island) was a scow, propelled with oars or sculls for teams, and wherries for foot passengers, all in later years under the control of the Brookings family. The arrival and departure of the ferry boat was an- nounced by the resonant notes of a tin horn.
In 1832, the legislature granted to Abiel Wood, Amos C. Tappan, Rufus Hilton, Ebenezer Hilton, John M. Brookings, Bradford Young, John Brooks, Gardiner Gove, Rufus Sewall, Patrick Lennox, and John Erskine, a charter under the name of the Sheepscot Ferry Company, "to maintain a Horse Ferry from and between some suitable place in Edgecomb and the opposite shore in Wiscasset; said corporation being bound at all times to have and keep suitable boats, apparatus and attendants for the safe and speedy transportation of passengers with their horses, teams and carriages." Such corporation was granted "a toll for said transportation at the follow- ing rates. Each foot passenger twelve cents-each wheelbarrow or vehicle moved by hand six cents-person and horse twenty-five cents-horse and wagon or cart and sled fifty cents-each team with cart, wagon or sled drawn by not more than four oxen seventy-five cents-each additional beast twelve cents-each chair with horse sulkey, chaise or sleigh thirty-eight cents-each coach, chariot, phaeton, curricle, barouche or sleigh drawn by two horses fifty cents-and each additional horse thereto twelve cents-neat cattle and beasts of burden exclusive of those rode upon or in carriages or teams, twelve cents each-sheep and swine per dozen twenty-five cents."
Authority was given to build and maintain piers, wharves, buildings or other conveniences necessary for the maintenance of such a ferry on the shores and landing places of Sheepscot River in the towns of Edgecomb and
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Wiscasset. It was also provided that the then ferrymen, Moses Davis and John M. Brookings, might own the whole or any part of the stock of the corporation. This ferry lasted until the bridge was built across the Sheepscot River in 1847.
There were other ferries which crossed the Kennebec River and connect- ed directly or indirectly with roads leading to Portland and Boston, thereby giving to Wiscasset an avenue of transportation for travelers, mail and com- modities, as well as communication with the outside world.
The Bridges of Wiscasset
The town of Wiscasset has twenty-two bridges which are 16 feet or more in width, and six small bridges which run from 10 to 12 feet wide. One- third of these bridges are across tide-waters.
The bridge which took precedence over all of the others and was, in fact, the longest wooden bridge in Maine, was built in 1847 from the foot of Main Street in Wiscasset to Davis Island. It has recently been replaced by the present structure (1931-1932) over which passes Route I of the Atlan- tic Highway to points further east.
The old bridge was 3,333 feet in length, 25 feet in width, with a draw above the deep channel 34 feet long. It is believed to have been the longest bridge crossing the deepest water of any in New England. For more than fourscore years it has served the town as a promenade. During this time it has been subjected to the action of floating ice above and the tides from below, and the superstructure has been endangered by the teredos, requiring constant supervision and frequent replacement of piling and spile shores.
The earliest record we have of an attempt to bridge the Sheepscot River, was on March 20, 1828, when there appeared in the Citizen-one of the Wiscasset journals of that time, for then Wiscasset had two newspapers regularly published here-this advertisement:
Edgecomb Bridge.
Proprietors of the Edgecomb Bridge Corporation, are hereby notified that there will be a meeting of the stockholders on Saturday, the 29th inst. at Lincoln Hall, in Wis- casset at 2 o'clock, P. M. M. Shaw, Sec'y
And this editorial comment:
Edgecomb Bridge .- It will be seen by a notice in this day's paper that a meeting of
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the subscribers to shares in this bridge will be holden on the 29th of this month in this place. The erection of a Bridge over the Sheepscot at this place, must be an enterprise of great importance not only to those in this immediate vicinity, but to all who travel through this part of our seaboard.
This movement was unsuccessful. In the older established Lincoln Intel- ligencer, then in its seventh volume, no mention of the bridge movement appeared.
At a meeting of the Committee appointed by the Town of Wiscasset to see what dis- position shall be made of so much of the surplus Revenue as belongs to this Town, on April 10th, 1837, all the Committee were present excepting Capt. Jesse White, viz: John Erskine, Chairman, Moral Hilton, Nathan Clark, Jr., James Lowell, Joseph Erskine, James Stinson, Ebenezer Albee, Benjamin Donnell, Anthony Nason, Daniel Baker, & Wilmot Wood, who was chosen secretary.
Voted .- Unanimously, To recommend to the Town to invest its proportion of the surplus revenue in erecting a bridge from some point in Wiscasset to the Town of Edgecomb Provided the Legislature of this State at its next session should incorporate a company for said purpose, said investment to be neither by the Towns loaning said amount to said corporation or by becoming stockholders in said corporation by leave of the Legislature, if said consent should be necessary, as they may hereafter determine, the interest of said money or the said dividend from said corporation to be appropriated for paying the poll tax of the Inhabitants of the Town, . .... ..
Attest, WILMOT WOOD, Secretary.
So voted. Town Records, Vol. V.
One year later the town voted to pay the surplus revenue out to the heads of families.
Several years afterward, Alexander Johnston, Jr., while crossing the At- lantic Ocean on his way to Liverpool, chanced upon a copy of an English paper which contained a partial list of enterprises in different parts of the world projected and agitated, but never carried out, and among them was the proposed bridge across the river at Wiscasset. He then and there re- solved that this bridge should be erected, and after his return home, he started the movement which resulted so successfully-he himself serving as one of the building committee and later as president of the corporation.
In 1846, the legislature incorporated The Proprietors of Wiscasset Bridge® with authority to hold and own real and personal estate to an amount not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, incident to the erection and maintenance of
6. Charter granted 1846, Private Laws, chapter 329.
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a toll bridge over Sheepscot River, from some suitable point in Wiscasset northwardly of Union Wharf, to Davis Island so-called, in Edgecomb, and not to be within thirty- two feet of the main capsil of the Carleton or Dole Wharf, in Wiscasset, on the south side, east of the projection which runs about forty feet from the Town landing; also a toll bridge from the easterly side of Davis Island to the main land in Edgecomb.
The charter stipulated that the bridge should be not less than twenty-five feet wide, that it should have a suitable draw at some suitable place having not less than twelve feet of water at low water in ordinary tides, such draw to be not less than thirty-two feet wide; and it was a condition imposed by the charter that in case of any vessel being delayed
at said draw except by stress of weather or ice, or by some unavoidable accident, more than one hour after notice is given that such vessel is desirous of being admitted through the draw, said corporation shall pay to the owner of such vessel at the rate of ten cents per hour on every ton burthen of such vessel which shall be so delayed in passing said draw.
The Act was void unless the bridges should be erected and finished within the term of five years from the passage of the Act. Tolls were granted as follows:
For foot passenger, .03
For horse & rider, .IO
Each horse wagon or sleigh, .15
Each chaise, carryall or carriage by I horse, .25
Each coach, chariot, sleigh, phaeton or other carriage of pleasure drawn by two horses, .35
or if drawn by four horses, .50
Each cart, wagon, sleigh or sled of burthen drawn by
two beasts, with one driver, .25
each additional beast, .05
Neat cattle and horses not in harness or teams or rode upon, .03
Sheep & Swine, each .OI
At that time a public ferry had been in operation between Wiscasset and Edgecomb for upwards of sixty years. An entry in the diary of Moses Davis, Esq., kept on Folly Island, shows that on Wednesday, June 8, 1785, he
Set out for Court (then sitting at the Pownalborough Court House ) had Mr. Bucklee's horse, [Charles Bulkeley then resident at Wiscasset] arriv'd at Court about II o'clock- afternoon I presented a petition to the Court Requesting them to establish a ferry to
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Cross the River from Wiscasset Point to Edgecomb & from Edgecomb to Wiscasset Point, the petition being read, the Court established and Stated sª ferry to be kept by myself for Edgecombe and M' David Silvester for Wiscasset x x x x Lodg'd & the Farmer's house was on the west side of the Kennebeck opposite the Court House.
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